Follow the author of this article

Follow the topics within this article

Political deals, to paraphrase the 19th-century poet John Godfrey Saxe, are like sausages: the more we know about how they are made, the less we respect them. Those who feel queasy about our diet of Brexit for breakfast, Brexit for lunch and Brexit for dinner might take solace from this: it is not just the Brexit negotiations that look messy when viewed up close. Saxe's dictum is true for all important political processes, even those with the best of reputations.

Take the Marshall Plan, for instance – the postwar programme of American financial aid that is often credited with saving Europe from economic ruin and civil war. This is the subject of an excellent new book by Benn Steil, a prize-winning...